canada

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Fun In The Sun

It’s a rare occasion in Vancouver for the sun to shine on a weekend, the fickle visitor preferring to taunt the inhabitants of Lotus Land on Thursday before departing for an early weekend sometime around lunch on Friday. However, the unprecedented sunshine of the last two weekends was enough to drag even a photophobic nerd like myself to seek a source of Vitamin D other than my CRT. So, what to do in the sun?

Aaahhh! We're gonna die and this raft will be our casket!Well, how about some rafting? We spent the weekend before last on a getaway with Ashley’s employer, Resort Reservations, up at Whistler enjoying a day out with Whistler River Adventures. We took a nice “trip” down the Birkenhead Rver near Pemberton, paddling like fanatics and pretending to control our destiny. And then back to the ranch for barbeque. Mmm…barbeque.

The only bummer part of our weekend in Whistler was the Blackcomb Lodge. Though the accommodations themselves were nice, their location in the heart of Whistler Village was, well, unsuitable. We were located on the “noisy” side, directly across from one of the restaurants…it was so noisy, I thought the cleaners had left the window open in our room. Alas, no.

Note to self: never stay at Blackcomb Lodge again.

After recuperating at work all week, we headed out to C-Fest, a beginner’s Ultimate tournament, with our fearless team leader Evan. Though we’d never played Ultimate before, except for the two practices we had beforehand, we did pretty well, had a lot of fun and, most importantly, didn’t do ourselves any irreparable serious injury. Well, most of us anyway. Ashley pulled a groin muscle and I’m currently walking like an old man because my ankles are sore, but other than that nothing major.

Next weekend is Farshad‘s boat party. So much for a quiet summer spent sleeping. Oh well.

in Personal 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Dave Matthews Band

We went and saw Dave Matthews Band at General Motors Place last Friday night. While I’m a fan of the band, the key reason I’m a fan is because they’re a jam band. Unfortunately, there was little jamming to be found at the concert until the last twenty minutes of the encore. Only then did the band reveal the Dave Matthews Band I originally coughed up $50 (plus service charge) to see.

To start with, we had Dave Matthews Fan Club members #2 and #3 located directly in front of us. And when I say directly, I mean directly. These were the variety of rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth fans that insist on standing up during every song, continuously commenting on the various nuances of bootleg copies of live concert recordings of the current song that they’d picked up off the Internet. I couldn’t stand it. One of the guys was six-and-a-half feet tall. I could only partially experience the concert through one of the two gigantic screens that were projecting a live feed of the concert.

Television. I had paid to attend a live concert, only to end up watching it through television.

You’ll notice that I only mentioned Fans #2 and #3. That’s because Fan #1 deserves special recognition. Fan #1 was located directly behind me and to my right, at an ideal position to deliver a mind-splitting whistle at each and every possible inappropriate juncture. Several times. Followed by an annoying hoarse laugh and a “Whoo-hooo!”, to make matters worse. Hell. I was in Hell, and this was how I was going to spend the eternity that was this concert. $50. And what the hell was that service charge for? It should have covered the cost of two burly men to drag away Fans #1, #2, and #3, with enough change left over for a tip.

In a moment of supreme self-control, I politely asked Fans #2 and #3 to take a seat. And after convincing them that, yes, I truly was “into” the Dave Matthews Band, and no, shuffling awkwardly in a standing position did not constitute “getting into it” and was not a fitting tribute to such a truly spectacular band, they sat their asses down. Two down, one to go.

Little did I know that Fan #1 would soon prove his worth, even if only by coincidence. After a quiet opening encore song, Fan #1 displayed heroic effort by insisting on screaming “TWO STEP!” repeatedly at the top his lungs, as if the concert were request night at the local watering hole and the Dave Matthews Band were a second-rate cover band. Amazingly, they played the song, though it was unclear if this was their intention all along or if, like me, they’d grown tired of this bozo and just wanted him to shut up at any cost. The song turned out to be the best of the night.

The rendition of “Two Step” consisted almost entirely of an improvised solo by the session pianist on the tour who, despite a slow start, quickly energized the audience with a jazz-style solo that changed the entire dynamic of the song. While the rest of the concert was well executed, complete with dazzling lighting and incredible camera work by the live TV team, it lacked the passion or spontaneity I had paid to see. In the end, I paid $50 for a single song.

But, in the end, it was all worth it.

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